England Women boss Phil Neville refused to criticise the officials after several decisions went against his side in a controversial 1-1 draw against Australia.
England had two strong penalty appeals rejected and a goal wrongly disallowed before they conceded an 84th-minute equaliser to Clare Polkinghorne in Tuesday’s international friendly at Craven Cottage.
The hosts had led since Fran Kirby opened the scoring after 21 minutes.
You try stopping her 🤷♀️#Lionesses pic.twitter.com/yWckGzSZve — Lionesses (@Lionesses) October 9, 2018
Neville told BT Sport: “We should have had two penalties, we should have had a goal. I think it’s best we don’t speak about the referee in terms of her performance.”
Neville however did admit he was “angry a little bit” as he watched events unfold on the touchline during the game.
England were also denied when a close-range effort from Beth Mead was ruled not to have crossed the line.
Mead was involved in the first penalty incident when she appeared to be fouled by Caitlin Foord.
🙄 Two penalties turned down🤐 A disallowed goal "I've learnt more about tonight than over the last six/seven months." A frustrated Phil Neville rues the the referee's performance and missed chances for the @Lionesses… pic.twitter.com/0AN2hwnaYc — Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) October 9, 2018
“She’s not dived, there’s contact,” Neville said.
Foord also appeared to bring down Nikita Parris in the second half but, again, no penalty was given.
Neville did not comment on that incident on television and when asked about a Lucy Staniforth goal ruled out for offside in the first half, the former Manchester United player said: “It sums up… I’ve got to be careful.”
Neville was more forthcoming discussing his side’s shortcomings. England, who beat Brazil last weekend, dominated the game and were guilty of wasting a series of chances themselves.
Neville said: “We weren’t ruthless enough again, we had one-on-ones. We played some good stuff but in terms of where they’re at in their season, we should be winning that game 3-0 or 4-0.
“It’s frustrating because we have worked hard over the last 10 days and to beat Australia and Brazil would have been good for our confidence.
“But I think maybe 1-1 we can go away and see where we have to improve. We have got to be more ruthless – we have to put our chances away. We were careless in front of goal and at 1-0 the opposition can always score.”
Neville admitted he feared England would be made to pay for their profligacy.
He said: “I knew it was coming because they had good delivery from their right-hand side. They were bigger than us, taller than us and I knew if they got another couple of set-pieces a goal would come.”
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